It is 9 PM and you want to check tomorrow’s schedule. Open Dental is on a server in the office and your laptop is on the kitchen table. There are four ways to bridge that gap. Two are quick and one of them is a bad idea.
What are the options?
Open Dental is a Windows program that talks to a MySQL database on a server in the practice. To use it from home, either your screen has to reach a computer in the office, or the database has to move somewhere you can both reach.
| Option | What it is | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Remote Desktop | Your laptop shows the screen of a PC at the office | One owner checking in occasionally |
| Terminal server | Several people share a Windows server over Remote Desktop | Practices with staff working from home regularly |
| VPN | Your laptop joins the office network, then runs Open Dental locally | Technical offices with an IT provider |
| Open Dental Cloud or a hosted server | The database lives in a data centre; everyone connects the same way, from anywhere | Multi-location groups, or anyone tired of a server closet |
Which one should I pick?
Remote Desktop to a workstation is the one most offices already have because the IT company set it up for themselves. It works. The risk is how it is exposed. If the Remote Desktop port is open on the office router to the whole internet, it will be found and attacked. Remote Desktop should only be reachable through a VPN or a gateway service that requires a second factor.
A terminal server is the same idea done properly. One Windows server, licensed for several users, running Open Dental for everyone who connects. It is the standard answer for an office with a remote billing coordinator.
A VPN on its own sounds simpler but Open Dental over a VPN is slow. The program reads from MySQL constantly, and every read crosses your home connection. Expect screens that take seconds to draw. Most IT providers will steer you to Remote Desktop over the VPN instead, which fixes the speed because only the screen travels.
Open Dental Cloud or a hosted server removes the office server entirely. You pay monthly, the vendor handles backups and updates, and home access is the same as office access. The trade-off is that every operatory now depends on the internet connection, so you need a second line or a mobile backup.
What does “safely” actually mean?
Whatever route you choose, five things keep the practice out of trouble.
- Named logins. Every person has their own Windows login and their own Open Dental user. Open Dental’s
securitylogrecords the user and the workstation on every action, and that only helps if the user is a real person. - A second factor. The gateway, VPN or hosted desktop should ask for a code from a phone, not just a password.
- No port forwarding of Remote Desktop. Ask your IT provider directly: “Is port 3389 open on the router?” The answer should be no.
- Lock the screen. A home laptop that stays logged in to the office server is a PHI exposure every time someone else sits at it.
- A Business Associate Agreement with whoever hosts the server or the gateway, because they can reach the database.
Do you need the whole program from home?
Often the answer is no. Most evening check-ins are three questions. What did we produce today. Who is on tomorrow’s schedule and are they confirmed. Did anything odd happen with money.
Those questions do not need Open Dental’s full screen, a Remote Desktop session and a VPN login. They need a read-only view of the numbers.
What Calibic adds
Dashboards and the Daily Huddle are LIVE for Open Dental. A small read-only agent runs on the office server, reads the tables it needs (procedurelog, appointment, payment, securitylog and a few more), and sends the figures to Calibic over an encrypted connection. You open Calibic in a browser on your phone or laptop. There is no Remote Desktop, no VPN and no patient chart on your kitchen table. Protect alerts arrive the same way, so a deleted payment at 2:14 PM is in front of you that evening.
Calibic cannot change a record, and it is not a replacement for Open Dental at home when you need to book an appointment or post a payment. Calibic is built for HIPAA, and a Business Associate Agreement is sent with every sign up.
See what the evening view looks like on the Dashboards product page. If what you really want from home is to check production, the sibling guide on the Open Dental production report explains the figures. Everything the agent reads is on the Open Dental integration page.